


It grew into a quiet harmony.

by Averia



Series: Dick Rare Pair Challenge Year Two [1]
Category: Batman Beyond, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Age Difference, M/M, Past Barbara Gordon/Dick Grayson, Unconventional Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-07
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:40:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27436711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Averia/pseuds/Averia
Summary: Sequel toIt started as a coping mechanism.It isn’t perfect, but it helps.
Relationships: Barbara Gordon/Bruce Wayne, Jim Gordon/Dick Grayson
Series: Dick Rare Pair Challenge Year Two [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2004466
Comments: 10
Kudos: 53
Collections: Dick Grayson Rare Pair Challenge





	It grew into a quiet harmony.

**Author's Note:**

> Well…, I didn’t think I would write a second fic (or really any fic featuring this pairing), but now it’s my 100th work (if we are counting the one fic I uploaded with the pseud's account… which is as much of an older man/younger man crack pair as this, lol).
> 
> In contrast to the fic before, this has sadly no fancy writing structure.

“We shouldn't have. You're younger than Barbara,” Jim mumbles, cigarette lit as he rests against the headboard. _I’m older than Bruce. This shouldn’t have happened a second time_ , he doesn’t say. 

Dick hums at his side, under his sheets. Patting his chest, unconcerned by the curling locks of salt and pepper hair and neither caring for the rounded, hardened belly that Jim knows he wouldn't have to such an extent if he had stopped drinking and smoking when he had promised Barbara he would.

“No smoking in bed. It’s a fire hazard,” Dick tells him as if he knows what Jim is thinking, plucking the cigarette out of his mouth, and replacing it with soft lips. He grumbles, and Dick grins, sinking back down, over the blankets to reveal his sculpted body seemingly without a care in the world.

Eyeing the sprawled-out hero, Jim wonders when he got so old. The answer is simple, tragically so. 

When he thought that the young man that moaned his name mere seconds ago would be his son-in-law.

Richard is a tease. Dominant. Capable. Bratty. Yet so vulnerable. He can see why Barbara liked him, always could even if he didn't admit it. Because he might not have liked Dick Grayson when he met him, but his worry and appreciation has always been directed at the young Robin and later the grown-up Nightwing.

Now, the dim morning light reveals the countless scars, the proof of hard-earned appreciation. He has glimpsed the same scars on his daughter over the years. Scars he wished he could have protected her from. 

Richard has a glaring amount more, and suddenly Jim is glad that she stayed in Gotham, is relieved that she had the Birds of Prey instead of super-human Titans.

Richard shifts, blanket curling more tightly around his hips, cheek bedded onto his out-stretched legs. Jim hopes they won’t fall asleep beneath the weight.

"Gotham makes me tired," Richard confesses; his voice so soft Jim barely hears. His gaze sticks to the window.

 _Then why don't you leave?_ Jim wants to ask, yet knows it's not that easy, never was, and never will be. If it were, Dick wouldn't be in his bed.

* * *

Dick gave him permission. It doesn’t make telling Barbara easier, but he doesn’t want his daughter to figure it out on her own.

“Oh,” Barbara says, a soft breath. She is uncomfortable, just as uncomfortable as she was when she told Dick and him what Bruce and she did, what consequences their actions had.

“Did you,” Barbara cuts herself off. “When did it start?”

“On my retirement party.”

“I see,” she says, tries to be brave, and Jim wonders if Dick and she talked that night. Or screamed. “Was it… was it a mistake?”

“No,” he says and itches for the pack of cigarettes Dick stole. “Well, I don’t know.” 

It’s not a mistake. It’s good, but it’s... it’s not right either.

“Dick won’t stay.”

The words shoot out of her mouth, and she flushes in immediate response. 

The thing is. Barbara is his daughter. His little girl. She always will be. So, something inside him has always vehemently insisted that Dick must have done something wrong, must be the devil in disguise. That little devil on his shoulder has gotten quieter and quieter over the years. 

He knows too well that love isn’t easy.

“I don’t want him to stay,” Jim says, wants to blame it on their age. He’ll die soon, at least it feels as if he will, and Dick is still young, deserves so much better… But Dick is a hero, and he won’t stop until it puts him into his early grave. 

Jim takes his glasses off, rubs his eyes. 

Not that they have a relationship. Sure, they don't always have sex. Sometimes they just cuddle. Sometimes it rains, and Dick cries because his body aches, and Jim can feel the echo in his own old bones while he despairs at the fact that this boy near thirty years his junior has to feel such monstrous and deep-seated pain in more ways than he ever will. 

“But he needs help.”

“And is he helping you?”

It’s like she can’t stop, but this time she doesn’t back down. Jim can appreciate someone worrying about him, especially if that someone is his daughter.

“I’m not the one hurting,” Jim decides to say. Dick asks for his opinions when they meet, effortlessly. Sometimes it feels as if those conversations place him back in time, onto a rooftop with a Batman that smiled and a Robin with a sword. Dick makes him feel wanted. Makes him feel as if he isn’t useless yet. Retirement didn’t kill him the way everyone feared it would… which doesn't mean he'll ever tell Montoya or Bullock why he is doing so good.

“Fine,” Barbara frowns the second the word is past her lips. “Since when are you? …Bi?”

Jim laughs at that. “I don’t think I am.”

* * *

“Is this your way of punishing me?” Bruce asks, stoic in the face of Dick’s revelation.

“Was Babs your way of punishing me? Did you just use her?” Dick shoots back unperturbed even if the thought stirs a fire in his gut. Bruce tenses.

“No,” it’s said near scathingly, and Dick juts out his chin, daring Bruce to speak on.

“He’s too old for you.”

“Yeah. Probably,” Dick doesn’t deny the obvious. Loving Jim isn’t like loving Kory or Babs. Joey or Lori. Shawn. Bea. Roy. It’s not loving in the way he usually loves, and he doesn’t quite know what to do with it. But it’s easy. Jim makes him feel safe the same way Donna does. Jim makes him unafraid, gives him hope.

If he needs somewhere to stay, Jim will let him in without question, and Dick yearns for that silent understanding. He has never learned to live without it. And for all the quiet hours they share, Jim talks to him too. Jim doesn’t leave him guessing. Dick scarcely remembers a time in which he could speak so easily about the issues he faces, the mistakes he has made. 

A huffing laugh emerges at the thought. 

“Jim would have made a wonderful father-in-law,” he says, and maybe he has always been hurt by that too. It took so long for him to be accepted by Jim as Dick Grayson instead of Nightwing. He had thought things were finally clicking into place.

“I’m not telling you so you can insert yourself into the situation,” Dick says, crossing his arms. “Jim and I simply thought you and Babs deserve to know. I hope you’ll be able to respect that.”

The warning in his voice swings clear as day, has Bruce drawing his shoulders back even more firmly. It’s as if he knows what Dick will do if he doesn't heed the warning.

**Author's Note:**

> (I kinda want to write Bullock finding out.)


End file.
